Company History

Our customers have seen quite a march of progress since Fred Robinson left a position with The Dow Chemical Company, where he was one of the people working on the development of a product called Styrofoam*.

Fred opened a business with his wife Ardis to explore the new world of plastics in the 1940s. Their first product was snow for Christmas trees which was actually Styrofoam — ground and beautifully packaged.

Recognizing the potential for large components of thermoformed plastics, Fred worked with equipment makers to develop machinery to serve the market. Much of the technology and machinery that’s still used in the industry today — such as the rotary thermoforming machine — was developed with Fred Robinson’s guidance. Robinson Industries began thermoforming refrigerator door slabs in the 1950s — and along the way started producing canoes, coolers and ice buckets.

At the request of automotive manufacturers, we began making thermoformed and injection-molded reusable plastic pallets for the auto industry in the 1960s. Evolving customer demands began making wooden pallets obsolete, helping plastic pallets gain in popularity.